“I’ve got nothing to say about him,” grumbled Lackey. “There are things I’d like to say, but I’m not going to. You guys forget pretty conveniently about stuff,” the stuff alluded to being Cruz’ 50 game suspension for PED use last season. You don’t have to be Manny Alexander to know that Baltimore skipper Buck Showalter (above, left) would take umbrage at Lackey bringing it up, as the Baltimore Sun’s Eduardo Encina carefully absorbed :

“You consider sources of people and some of their emotions after the game, whether it be a player’s comment or a manager’s comment or some fan’s comment,” Showalter said. “You understand that nobody makes those comments after they pitched a complete game shutout or Nelson is 0-for-5. It’s human nature.”

“We need to all make sure we check our own backyard before we start looking at someone else’s.”

At the time of his suspension last season, Cruz said he used PEDs after a gastrointestinal infection that went undiagnosed and caused him to lose 40 pounds. Cruz said he has moved on from last year, but he still gets constantly heckled on the road by fans.

“Like I said, everybody is free to talk,” Cruz said. “What I care [about] is what I’m doing here. You can’t go and confront everybody who talks, you know?